Charles a



(No Model.) f

O. A. LIEB ELECTRIC RAIL CONNECTOR.

No. 434,087. Patented Aug. 12. 1890.-

WITNESS I 11V 51v 0/? 8V2 ATTORNEY.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. LIEB, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRIC RAIL-CONNECTOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 434,087, dated August 12, 1890.

Application filed May 5, 1890. Serial No. 350,570. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. LIEB, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Bonds, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in rail-bonds or devices for making electrical connect-ion between the rails of electrical railways, and is designed to obviate defects in the methods and devices heretofore employed;

and it consists in making terminals or pins which enter the rails integral, or practically so, with the connecting wire or bar, which extends from one to the other.

In the drawings hereof the same referenceletters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is an elevation of one form of my invention. Fig. 2 illustrates an elevation of an alternative construction. Fig. 3 illustrates a side view of the ends of two adjacent rails, shown in elevation, with my invention attached. Fig. 4 shows a view of one of the pins detached.

A A are the ends of two adjoining rails. They may be made in any preferred form.

B is the electrical connection between the rails. It is any suitable wire or bar of suitable material.

C C are the two pins which are driven into holes made in the rails, so as to secure intimate contact with them. These pins are provided with heads D D,through which holes E are made, within which the connecting bar or wire B is received, and it is riveted or upset upon the outside, as shown; orit may be soldered to the pin-heads with the holes, or in any way given such intimate connect-ion with the pins as to be practically integral therewith. In contradistinctionto being held against these pins, it will be observed that as the pins shown in Fig. 1 are driven into the holes in the rails the metal of the head,as atF in Fig. 4:, will be forced down firmly upon the 0011- necting bar or wire B, thus securing intimate contact therewith; and in order thatI may assure close contact between the pins and the rails I prefer to taper the shank or body of the pin, as shown, so that it will crowd more and more upon the walls of the hole in the rails during the driving operation; and also, in order that the heads may not be broken from the shanks, I prefer to leave a fillet H at the junction between the shank and the heads.

In Fig. 2 I show an alternative construction. In it- I upset the end of the connecting-bar B, as shownat G, and swage it up, preferably, into the form shown, and also form on it the two pins H H, adapted to be driven into the holes in the rails. In this way the entire device is made from one piece of metal.

I claim- 1. A rail-connector comprising a rod or wire having pins extending transversely across its ends, the rod passing through the pins, substantially as set forth.

2. A rail-connector comprising a rod or wire having tapering pins extending transversely across its ends and projecting beyond the rod or wire at all sides thereof, substantially as set forth.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 30th day of April, A. D. 1890. I

CHARLES A. LIEB.

\Vitnesses:

FREDERICK SMITH, PHILLIPS ABBOTT. 

